Last spring, I purchased the IKEA Kitchen Playset for my daughter, Quinn. I decided to give it a “glow-up” so it would look a little more beautiful and less out-of-place in our home. I think many parents with little ones are constantly fighting the balance of keeping a nice home while also entertaining their kiddos. For this reason, I personally prefer to limit the amount of bulky, plastic toys in our house.
I’m sharing all the information below on how we transformed this bare bones play kitchen into an adorable “grandmillenial” styled kitchenette that will look as sweet as ever in any home.
IKEA Duktig Play Kitchen & Design Inspiration
First, I purchased the IKEA DUKTIG Play Kitchen, which costs about $99 online. As you can see, it’s pretty basic and could use a little brightening up. It shipped quickly and was very easy to put together. I highly recommend painting the kitchen before assembling. I made the mistake of assembling first and ran into a couple road blocks where I had to take pieces of the kitchen apart to paint it.
Before I began sourcing my paint, “backsplash”, and accessories, I made an inspiration board on Canva. If you have never used Canva before, it’s an amazing tool for creating graphics, or in this case, building out an inspo board. I am very visual and need to see different elements together before I commit, so I find this tool works really well for that. You can create a free account on canva.com.
I also used Pinterest to brainstorm finishes that I liked. I was very motivated by Julia Berolzheimer’s beautiful Charelston kitchen with this project!
Cabinets & Backsplash
For the pale blue cabinets, I used about 3 sample pots of Farrow & Ball’s Parma Gray No. 27. You can search online for this color and find a couple different vendors that carry the sample sizes for around $8.50 a pot.
For the backsplash, you will need to cut down a piece of wood paneling to fit the open space on the kitchen. I had my husband do this for me using some scrap wood we had in the garage – but you can easily do this by measuring the size you need, select your wood panel at Home Depot or Lowes, and ask them to cut it down for you in the store. Then, you’ll need to select your “wallpaper” or backsplash of choice. I chose the Libby Stripe Soft Blue Green peel and stick wallpaper from Spoonflower. I only purchased the swatch size to cover the backing for the IKEA kitchen. I will say, I ran a little bit short with just one swatch for a single clean cut, but I was able to cut a scrap piece from the swatch and position it so it aligned with the pattern. You can’t even tell when looking at the final product.
After you fix the peel-and-stick wallpaper on your wood panel, you’ll want to line the board up to the open space on the back of the kitchen and secure with a staple gun.
Finishes
The cabinet pulls, faucet, kitchen rod and hooks were all spray painted metallic gold, and the sink was spray painted white. Make sure to at least spray paint the rod and hooks before assembling the kitchen, because once they go in, they are hard to take apart.
Wooden Stove Top
For the stove top, I wanted something a little more subtle than the plastic black and red one that came with the kitchen. It’s actually pretty cool though because it lights up and makes sound (I believe?). I’m not totally positive because we haven’t used it. Instead, I found a wooden block from hobby lobby and used a power sander to sand the edges down to perfectly fit the insert for the stove top. I also found 2 round wooden discs and mini popsicle sticks from Hobby Lobby to make the stove top rings. I used super glue to secure the pieces together.
Grandmillenial Accessories
For the kitchen accessories, I bought some pretty floral fabric and lace trim from Hobby Lobby to sew a few tea towels and a mini apron. These are really easy to make, and if you don’t want to sew, you can simply cut your fabric and use fabric glue to “hem” the raw edges. If thought the little tea towels added a sweet touch to the kitchen!
I purchased the precious little wicker tea cup and cake stand set from Maisonette, and the wicker “utensil holder” from Target (this is actually a mini wicker basket for the bathroom that comes with a lid). The mini cutting boards are from the Target dollar section, and the wooden utensil set is from Wayfair.
The Hearth & Hand collection at Target carries the adorable toaster, butter dish, and mixer. For the mixer, I painted it the same color blue as the cabinets using what I had leftover.
I hope you find this helpful as you make-over your own IKEA play kitchen. Below you’ll find the items and accessories I used for this project with links to where you can purchase them. Would love to see your IKEA play kitchen makeover in the comments below!
